Desktop icons flickering when loading Opera

I had same problem with Opera 55 and less (Windows 8 and updated drivers). There was slow Opera loading (about 1 minute) and taskbar icons flickering. Today I've installed latest Opera version and removed all files from path "c:/Users/MyUser/AppData/Local/Temp" - not sure it is good practice but there was over 4000 files and almost 2GB of usage. After that opera starts normal (in seconds) and there's no flickering icons.

I think I have found the ANSWER. The lnk shortcut that Opera still uses causes the problem (more like Windows' bug than Opera's though). To resolve this, you need to go to your installation folder, make another shortcut by dragging Opera icon to your desktop, or pin it to taskbar. Voila, it starts just as smoothly as ever.

I think I have found the ANSWER. The lnk shortcut that Opera still uses causes the problem (more like Windows' bug than Opera's though). To resolve this, you need to go to your installation folder, make another shortcut by dragging Opera icon to your desktop, or pin it to taskbar. Voila, it starts just as smoothly as ever.

Agreed. As reported above 5 months ago!

xpvb48 5 months ago
I seem to have stumbled upon a very simple solution to this, at least on my Win 8, 64 Bit Toshiba notebook.

I always start up Opera via a long established Icon on my PC's Task Bar. Today I found a new 'Opera browser' shortcut on my PC in the folder: User/AppData/Local/Temp
It doesn't seem to have special parameters or anything but, when I started Opera up via this shortcut, no flickering!

I unpinned the old Opera Icon from the Task bar and pinned a new Opera Icon for the program. Now, whenever I start Opera from the Task Bar, it starts normally with no flickering icons. I do not know the details of the old startup icon.

I've had this same "problem" too. I say problem in quotes, because it really doesn't hurt anything. The redraw process takes only a second or two. However, just for kicks, I did what [b]xpvb48[/b] said, and it fixed it. Unpin your current taskbar link, then repin a new one. I did mine from the appdata/local/temp directory, but I'm guessing it will work repinned from anywhere.

I just discovered a couple things. This isn't an Opera problem per se, but a Windows thang. When I open my ACDSee photo editor, it does the same thing. Also, the "fix" I did above only lasted a couple days. Now it's back. I'm not going to worry about it though, because it's such a minor deal.

However, folks might find this interesting. I came into this forum searching for a different problem. After updating to ver 56, my bookmarks bar didn't highlight the labels when I hovered the mouse over them. But when I did xpvb48's "fix", it fixed that problem also. That problem has remained fixed.

Noticed I was getting some icon flickering on latest versions of Opera (was 56.0.3051.43, just updated again) when started via the Taskbar. So I tried the usual trick of deleting the existing icon, went to the Opera program directory and tried starting directly from Launcher. Much worse! Slower start up, even more icon flickering.

So I closed Opera, tried to create a Shortcut of Launcher in the program directory - my Win 8 PC wouldn't allow this but offered to put shortcut on desktop. (day to day I use my ordinary User account not the Admin account). Pinned new shortcut to Taskbar and clicked. Much better!

Seems this may be a necessary bit of Opera maintenance following updates. Or, as mentioned above, is it a Windows issue?

Right-click "C:\Program Files\Opera\launcher.exe" and "pin to start". Repeat and choose "pin to taskbar". And, if you want, repeat and choose "create shortcut" to create a shortcut on your desktop (which you can then rename to "Opera" if you want).

I've seen this happen on a couple different programs now. I believe it's a skinning and/or "theme" problem. It appears as though when a program has it's own theme, that overrides the Windows theme, it has to redraw the icons, and possibly the borders. But I'm having a hard time consistently verifying that. I just know it isn't only Opera that does it.

@xpvb48
I have found thie file Opera-Browser.lnk in Temp Folder.
If i set it to readonly there are no Icons refresh .
Opera create this file every time new thats where comes these Desktop Icons refresh.
If you delete the file the first Opera start there where no icons refresh but the second start has refresh the Icons.

I use latest Opera 57.0.3098.106 .
I can't use amazon prime with Opera but Google Chrome portable works WHY !